OF 
 
 DISTILLATION 
 
 THE WINE TRADE CLU. 
 41, SEETHING LA 
 LONDON, E.G. 
 
 19 T 2 
 
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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 DAVIS 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 MAYNARD A. AMERINE 
 
THE ART 
 
 OF 
 
 DISTILLATION. 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 VINTNERS' HALL, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE WINE TRADE CLUB 
 On Tuesday, the 23rd April. 1912. 
 
 RY 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.&rchive.org/details/artofdistillatioOOwinerich 
 
THE ART 
 
 OF 
 
 DISTILLATION. 
 
 I. Historical. 
 
 ■X'HE art of distillation, taken in its 
 * most comprehensive sense, was 
 known to the Ancients who distilled 
 sea-water and certain perfumes. But 
 the process of distillation does not 
 appear to have been applied to wine 
 before the end of the eleventh century, 
 when a certain Marcus Grsecus gave us 
 the earliest known recipe for the dis- 
 tillation of Aqua Ardens or Ardent 
 Water, in a manuscript entitled Liber 
 ignium ad combiirendos hostes, and 
 which is preserved at the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, Paris, under the Nos. 7156 
 and 7158. 
 
4 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 A certain Doctor Albucasis, who 
 lived at Cordoba, in Spain, during the 
 twelfth century, has also left us a de- 
 tailed description of the distilling 
 apparatus then in use for the distilla- 
 tion of rose water and of wine. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, R. LuUi, in 
 his Theatrum Chemicum and Arnaud de 
 Villeneuve, in his treatise De Vinis, 
 show us that the distillation of wine 
 had then been placed on a more 
 scientific basis, and that the virtues of 
 distilled wine were beginning to be 
 appreciated. " Some people call it Eau 
 de Vie," wrote Arnaud de Villeneuve, 
 ** and this name is remarkably suitable, 
 since it is really a water of immortality. 
 Its virtues are beginning to be recog- 
 nised, it prolongs life, clears away 
 ill-humours, revives the heart and main- 
 tains youth." 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 5 
 
 At that early period, distillers were 
 so much impressed with the marvellous 
 qualities of distilled wine that they 
 imagined it contained some of the 
 attributes of the fire which had helped 
 to make it. They sought to prolong 
 distillation as much as possible, on 
 heated sand, and they endeavoured to 
 let the contact between the liquid in 
 the still and the heat of the fire be as 
 long as possible, thinking that such was 
 the surest means of obtaining a more 
 fiery spirit. 
 
 During the fourteenth century, much 
 progress was made in the art of dis- 
 tillation, both in France and Germany, 
 and wine spirit was used medicinally 
 and sold by apothecaries at prices 
 which were then considered pro- 
 hibitive. 
 
 In 1307, an entry in the account book 
 
6 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 of the Comtesse Mahaut reads thus : — 
 "For wine bought by Girard to make 
 burning water of, for our daughter, ten 
 sous and ten deniers/' 
 
 In 1358, in his Pratica Alchhnica, 
 Ortholaus gives very exact di ections 
 for the distillation of wine, and for 
 rectifying the spirit obtained first. 
 
 From the publications, at Augsburg, 
 in 1483, of a treatise by Michel Schreik, 
 Verzeichniss der Atisgebranden Wasser, 
 and, at Bamberg, in 1493, of a poem 
 dealing with the merits and demerits of 
 alcohol, it is evident that, in Germany, 
 the use of spirits was, during the 
 fifteenth century, no longer restricted 
 to medicinal purposes. 
 
 In 1496, the municipality of Nurem- 
 berg was already taking measures to 
 check the abuse of spirits, a decree 
 issued that year " forbidding the sale of 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 7 
 
 distilled waters on Sundays and other 
 holidays, in private houses, as well as 
 by druggists and other merchants, in 
 their shops, in the market, in the street, 
 or elsewhere, so as to put a stop to their 
 abuse and excessive consumption." 
 
 Liquids fermented from grain appear 
 to have first been distilled on a large 
 scale in the fifteenth century, and it 
 was due to this fact that the con- 
 sumption of spirits rapidly became 
 more general, particularly so in 
 Northern Europe, where wine was com- 
 paratively expensive and out of the 
 reach of the majority of the people. 
 
 Ever since, the consumption of spirits 
 has grown more popular and more 
 considerable all the world over, whilst 
 the industrial utilisation of alcohol has 
 opened a practically unlimited field to 
 the energies of the distiller. 
 
8 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 Aqua Vitae does not appear to have 
 enjoyed any popularity in England 
 before the sixteenth century. Some 
 knowledge of the art of distillation 
 may have been brought to this country 
 by Raymond Lulli, during the reign of 
 Edward III. The inventor of the 
 Universal Art had great faith in "the 
 marvaylous use and comoditie of burn- 
 ing waters even in warres, a little before 
 the joining of batayle, to styr and 
 encourage the souldiours' mindes." No 
 record has been found, however, to 
 show that distilled spirits were con- 
 sumed in England before the sixteenth 
 century, although they were commonly 
 used in Ireland, and probably also in 
 Scotland at a much earlier date. 
 
 In 1525, a translation of Jerome 
 Braunschweig's important work on 
 distillation was published in London, 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 9 
 
 under the title of The Vertiiose Boke of 
 Distyllacyon of the Waters of all maner 
 of Herbes, '' for the help and profit of 
 surgeons, physicians, pothecaries, and 
 all manner of people.'' This seems to 
 have been the earliest book of any im- 
 portance, in this country, published 
 with a view of rendering the science of 
 distillation more popular. The Vertiiose 
 Boke bestows great praises on Aqua 
 Vita', the use of which, however, was 
 chiefly recommended medicinally. 
 "Aqua Vitas," according to the Vertuose 
 Boke, " is commonly called the mistress 
 of all medicines, for it easeth the dis- 
 eases coming from cold. It giveth also 
 young courage in a person, and causeth 
 him to have a good memory and re- 
 membrance. It purifyeth the five wits 
 of melancholy and of all uncleanliness, 
 when it is drunk by reason and meas- 
 
10 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 ure ; that is to understand five or six 
 drops in the morning, fasting, with a 
 
 spoonful of wine , it com- 
 
 forteth the heart and causeth a body 
 to be merry, etc." 
 
 In 1559, when Peter Morwyng pub- 
 lished his Treasure of Evonymous, wine 
 was no longer distilled solely by 
 apothecaries for medicinal purposes. 
 There were already a certain number of 
 distillers in London, whose trade 
 consisted in distilling spirits from 
 wine-lees and unsound wine obtained 
 at very low prices from the vintners 
 and coopers, a practice which Morwyng 
 does not find fault with. " Burning 
 water, or Aqua Vit^," he writes, " is 
 drawn oute of wyne, but, wyth us, out 
 of the wyne lies (lees) only, specially of 
 them that sel it, and by this onely 
 almost get their livying. And perad- 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. ii 
 
 venture it is never a whit the worse 
 that it is drawne oute of lees; for Lullus 
 teacheth that it may be wel destilled of 
 corrupt wine, yea, if it be distilled 
 often it shal be made the more 
 eflfectuall (that is to say), hotter 
 and drier, etc." 
 
 The rapidity with which the popu- 
 larity of the crude, home-made spirits 
 spread in England is evidenced by the 
 numerous editions of the works on 
 distillation. Two editions of the 
 Treasure of Evonymoiis were printed in 
 1559; a litle later, another treatise on 
 the same subject by Conrad Gesner 
 and translated by George Baker, was 
 published under the title of the Newe 
 Jewell of Health, and the demand was 
 so great that several editions had to 
 be issued within a short space of time. 
 
 In the Jewell of Health, we read 
 
12 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 that good wine was sometimes used 
 for distillation, but the process was 
 then considered very wasteful. "The 
 burning water, or water of life, is 
 sometimes distilled out of pleasant and 
 good wine, as the white or the red, 
 but oftener out of the wine lees of a 
 certain eager-savour or corrupt Wine. 
 
 "Further, when out of pure wine a 
 water of life is distilled, I hear that 
 out of a great quantity of good wine, 
 a little yield or quantity of burning 
 water is to be distilled, but out of the 
 lees of wine, a much (greater) yield 
 and quantity (are) gathered." 
 
 It was not, however, until the 
 reign of Elizabeth and after the 
 expedition to the Low Countries in 
 1585, that the taste for spirits became 
 prevalent amongst the lower classes. 
 
 The taste for strong liquor and fiery 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 13 
 
 spirits appears to have made rapid 
 progress in England during the 
 seventeenth century ; the distillation 
 of home-made spirits was repeatedly 
 encouraged by legislation, and it 
 soon attained considerable importance, 
 whilst the imports of brandy, rum and 
 arrack increased very rapidly during 
 the same period. Rum from the 
 West Indies and arrack from the East 
 were only imported at the close of 
 the seventeenth century, and, even 
 then, in insignificant quantities only. 
 Brandy from Bordeaux, Rochelle or 
 Nantes, Spain, Portugal and even from 
 the Canaries, was the staple foreign 
 spirit, whilst Aqua Vitas and strong 
 waters were chiefly supplied from 
 wine-lees or strong ale distilled in 
 England and flavoured with spices or 
 other ingredients. 
 
14 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 Previous to the reign of Charles L, 
 there does not appear to have existed 
 any control whatever over the manu- 
 facture of spirits in England ; every- 
 body was then free to distil spirits 
 from whatever source they pleased and 
 in whichever way they chose. This 
 liberty was undoubtedly the cause of 
 much unpalatable and unwholesome 
 trash being sold as spirits, which had 
 been distilled from sour wine dregs or 
 putrid beer-wash. It was in order to 
 prevent as far as possible the manu- 
 facture and sale of such injurious 
 products that Charles I. granted the 
 first Charter of the Distillers Company, 
 in 1638. The person who seems to 
 have been primarily instrumental in 
 promoting the movement for the 
 incorporation of the Distillers was 
 Sir Theodore de Mayern, physician 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 15 
 
 to the King. In conjunction with 
 Dr. Thomas Cademan, medical adviser 
 to the Queen, and the first Master of 
 the Distillers Company, Mayern pre- 
 pared a series of regulations and 
 bye-laws for the management of the 
 new scheme which were published in 
 1639 under the following title : — 
 
 " The Distiller of London : Compiled and set forth 
 by the Special Licence and Command of the King's 
 Most Excellent Majesty. For the sole use of the 
 Company of Distillers of London. And by them to 
 be duly observed and practised." 
 
 To protect the public from unwhole- 
 some spirit, it was decreed : 
 
 " That no Afterworts or Wash (made by Brewers, 
 etc.) called Blew John, nor musty unsavoury or 
 unwholesome tills, or dregs of beer or ale; nor 
 unwholesome or adulterated wines, or Lees of Wines, 
 nor unwholesome sugar- waters ; musty unsavoury or 
 unwholesome returned beer or ale ; nor rotten corrupt 
 or unsavoury fruits, druggs, spices, herbs, seeds ; nor 
 any other ill-conditioned materials of what kind 
 soever, shall henceforth be distilled, extracted or 
 
i6 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 drawn into small spirits, or low wines, or be any 
 other ways used, directly or indirectly, by any of the 
 Members of this Company, or their successors at any 
 time hereafter for ever." 
 
 The regulations enacted by the Dis- 
 tillers Company failed to ensure greater 
 purity in English-made spirits because 
 the Company never enjoyed any of the 
 trading monopolies which alone would 
 have made it possible to control the 
 conduct of the trade. Charles IL, 
 James IL, and William III., encouraged 
 the distillation of home grain, in order 
 to promote agriculture, allowing every 
 Englishman to distil and retail spirits 
 from English-grown corn. The most 
 important measure passed by Parlia- 
 ment to that effect was the Act IL, 
 William and Mary, which begins : 
 
 '* An Act for the encouraging the distillation of 
 brandy and spirits from corn. First, the trade and 
 commerce of France being prohibited, and all their 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 17 
 
 goods from being imported in the kingdom ; And 
 whereas good and wholesome brandy, aqua vitae, and 
 spirits may be drawn and made from malted corn ; 
 For the encouragement therefore of the making of 
 brandy, strongwaters, and spirits from malted corn, 
 and for the greater consumption of corn and the 
 advantage of tillage in this kingdom. The King, 
 Queen and Parliament then assembled have thus 
 ordained it. . . ." 
 
 In 1673, a petition was presented to 
 Parliament, praying that brandy, coffee, 
 mum (a strong ale brewed chiefly 
 from wheat malt), tea and chocolate 
 might be prohibited, on the ground 
 that these beverages greatly hindered 
 the consumption of barley, malt and 
 wheat, products of the land; and the 
 petition went on to say : 
 
 *' Before brandy which is now become common and 
 sold in every little alehouse, came over into England 
 in such quantities as it now doth, we drank good 
 strong beer and ale, and all laborious people (which 
 are far the greatest part of the kingdom), their bodies 
 requiring, after hard labour, some strong drink to 
 
i8 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 refresh them did therefore every morning and evening 
 used to drink a pot of ale or a flagon of strong beer, 
 which greatly promoted the consumption of our own 
 grain, and did them no great predjudice ; it hindered 
 not their work, neither did it take away their senses 
 nor cost them much money, whereas (the petition 
 continued) the prohibition of brandy would . . . 
 prevent the destruction of His Majesty's subjects, 
 many of whom have been killed by drinking thereof, 
 it not agreeing with their constitution." 
 
 In 1684, the whole of English-made 
 spirits on which excise was paid 
 amounted to 527,000 gallons, whilst 
 there were 202 tuns, 36 pieces, and 19 
 casks, equal to about 29,000 gallons of 
 foreign spirits imported in London 
 during the month of February, 1683. 
 
 In 1694, the produce of all the stills 
 in England amounted to 1,885,752 
 gallons of low-wines, or 754,300 gallons 
 of spirits. In the same year, in spite of 
 the prohibition of French spirits, there 
 were imported from Holland, Spain, 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 19 
 
 Portugal and the Canaries, in the port 
 of London alone, 706 tuns, 223 pipes, 
 425 casks, 70 hogsheads, 52 butts and 8 
 pipes of foreign brandy, about a million 
 and a quarter gallons. 
 
 Home-made Aqua Vitse had nothing 
 in common with Brandy or distilled 
 wine; it was a spirit made from the 
 lees of wine or ale and flavoured with 
 a very great variety of herbs or roots. 
 In his English House- Wife, Markham 
 has the two following recipes for 
 making " an excellent Aqua Vitas " : 
 
 "Take of rosemary two handfulls, of marjerom 
 winter savory, rosemary, rue, unset time, germander, 
 ribwort, harts-tongue, mouseare, white wormwood, 
 bugloss, red sage, liver-wort, hoar-hound, fine lavender, 
 hyssop-crops, pennyroyal, i red fennell, of each of 
 these one handfuU ; of elicampane roots, clean pared 
 and sliced, two handfulls ; then take all these aforesaid 
 and shred them, but not wash them, then take four 
 gallons or more of strong ale, and one gallon of sack 
 lees, and put all these aforesaid herbs shred into it, 
 
20 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 and then put into it one pound of lycoras bruised, hal 
 a pound of aniseeds clean sifted and bruised, and of 
 mace and nutmegs bruised of each one ounce ; then 
 put altogether into your stilling pot, close covered 
 with rye paste, and make a soft fire under your pot, 
 and as the head of the limbeck heateth, draw out 
 your hot water and put in cold, keeping the head of 
 your limbeck still with cold water, but see that your 
 fire be not too rash at the first, but let your water 
 come at leisure, and take heed into your stilling, that 
 your water change not white ; for it is not so strong as 
 the first draught is ; and when the water is distilled, 
 take a gallon glass with a white mouth, and put therein 
 a pottle of the best water and clearest, and put into 
 it a pottle of rosa solis, and half a pound of dates 
 bruised, and one ounce of grains, and half a pound 
 of sugar, half a pound of seed pearl beaten, three 
 leaves of fine gold ; stir all these together well, then 
 stop your glass, and set it in the sun the space of one 
 or two months, and then chlarifie it, and use it at 
 your discretion, for a spoontuU or two at a time is 
 sufficient, and the vertues are infinite." 
 
 The second way indicated for making 
 an " excellent Aqua Vitae " is not quite 
 so fantastic as the preceding, although 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 21 
 
 Markham might have more rightly said 
 of both recipes " take it at your peril/* 
 than " at your discretion.'' 
 
 ' *' Fill a pot with red wine, clean and strong, and 
 put therein the powders of cammomile, jilley flowers, 
 ginger, pellitory, nutmeg, gallengal, spicknard, 
 quenebus, grains of pure long pepper, black pepper, 
 cummin, fennel seed, smallage, parsley, sage, rue, 
 mint, calamint, and horshow, of each of them a like 
 quantity, and beware they differ not the weight of a 
 dram under or above: then put all the powders 
 abovesaid into the wine, and after put them into the 
 distilhng pot, and distill it with a soft fire, and look 
 that it be well luted about with rye paste, so that no 
 fume or breath goe forth, and looke that the fire be 
 temperate ; also receive the water out of the lymbeck 
 into a glass vial. This water is called the water of 
 life. . . ." 
 
 Then follow directions how to make 
 Aqua Composita, distilled from " the 
 best ale that can be brewed/' the 
 Imperial Water, from Gascony wine, 
 Cinamon Water, from Sack, and "Six 
 
22 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 most precious waters " which are said 
 to possess remarkable virtues. 
 
 Markham further indicates a few 
 of the strong-waters which a provident 
 house-wife should always keep for 
 cases of emergency. 
 
 ** Therefore first I would have her furnish herself 
 of very good stills, for the distillation of all kinds of 
 waters, which stills would either be of tin, or sweet 
 earth, and in them she shall distil all sorts of waters 
 meet for the health of her household, as sage water, 
 which is good for all rheums, and collicks ; raddish 
 water, which is good for the stone ; angelica water, 
 good against infection ; celandine water for sore eyes ; 
 vine water, for itchings; rosewater and eye bright 
 water for dimme sights ; rosemary water for fistulaes ; 
 treacle water for mouth cankers ; water of cloves for 
 the pain in the stomach ; saxifrage water for gravell 
 and hard urine ; allom water for old ulcers, and a 
 world of others, any of which will last a full year at 
 least. Then she shall know that the best waters for 
 the smoothing of the skin, and keeping the face 
 delicate and amiable, are those which are distilled, 
 from beanflowers, from strawberries, from vine leaves, 
 from goates-milk, from asses milk, from the whites of 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 23 
 
 eggs, from the flowers of lilies, from dragons, from 
 calves feet, from bran or from yelks of eggs, any of 
 which will last a year or better." 
 
 In the Britannian Magazine (1691) 
 W. Y. Worth tells us that "Aqua 
 Vitas is nothing else but well brewed 
 beer, that is strongly hop'd and well 
 fermented " distilled and rectified ; he 
 asserts that " Brandy " made from 
 beer, cider, perry or fruit wines is 
 "little inferiour to that of France," 
 and he also gives full particulars for 
 the manufacture of strong-waters of 
 aniseed, caroway, cardamum, hearts- 
 ease, angelica, wormwood, mint, etc. 
 
 J.Lightbody, "Philomath,'^ published 
 at about the same time a treatise on 
 brewing and distilling, entitled Every 
 man his own ganger, in which he gives 
 the recipe " to make the best sort of 
 Right Irish Usquebaugh," as follows: 
 
24 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 "Take of good spirits, 12 gallons. Put therein 
 of aniseeds, nutmegs, sugar, carroway-seeds, of each 
 four ounces, distil the whole to proof spirit, put 
 thereto liquorish, raisins of the sun 2 pound, and 4 lb. 
 of sugar, let it drain through a flannel bag, and fine 
 it down with the whites of eggs and wheat floor. 
 This is the only way that natives of Ireland make 
 this liquor, which is approved of to exceed all the 
 other new ways of making it, being but imitations of 
 the original." 
 
 The Gin riots in the eighteenth, and 
 of the rise of the Whisky trade in 
 the nineteenth centuries, belong to 
 modern times and will be described at 
 a later date. The story of the progress 
 made in the art of distillation at 
 home and abroad during the last 
 two centuries will be told in later 
 Lectures dealing with each separate 
 class of spirits. All we need say now 
 is that the more important the art of 
 distillation became, the more attention 
 it received, both commercially and 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 25 
 
 scientifically, with the result that many 
 improvements were from time to time 
 introduced into former methods of dis- 
 tilling ; these have gradually been 
 perfected to such a degree that the 
 industry of distillation is now, in all 
 civilised countries, one of the most 
 important and one of the most 
 profitable as far as State Exchequers 
 are concerned. 
 
 11. The Theory of Distillation. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the art of distilla- 
 tion as applied to spirits, consists in 
 isolating, by heat, the different elements 
 of which any alcoholic liquid may be 
 composed. 
 
 The marked differences, however, 
 which exist between various potable 
 spirits are due, in the first instance, to 
 
26 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 the differences existing between various 
 fermented liquids from which such 
 spirits are distilled, and, in the 
 second place, to different methods of 
 distillation. 
 
 It is by fermentation, not by distilla- 
 tion, that alcohol is obtained, so that 
 the first care of the distiller is to 
 obtain by fermentation the alcoholic 
 liquid he will have to distil. 
 
 What is alcohol ? Some call it a 
 food and others a poison ; some say 
 that it is a stimulant and others an 
 irritant; some condemn its use and 
 many more praise it, but no one can 
 possibly give a definition of alcohol 
 which will be acceptable to all, no 
 one but the chemist, who will tell 
 you that alcohol is a compound of 
 carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in 
 certain proportions. 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 27 
 
 Chemists recognise 65 simple bodies, 
 all others are compound bodies. A 
 simple body is one which cannot be 
 divided, and a compound body is one 
 that is formed of a combination of 
 two or more simple bodies. One may 
 crush pure sulphur, for instance, or 
 treat it by fire, water, electricity or 
 acids without obtaining anything but 
 sulphur ; Science is unable to sub- 
 divide sulphur, and so it is called a 
 simple body. The same applies to 
 carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, etc. On the 
 other hand, water is a compound 
 body, because it can be divided and 
 can easily be proved to be a combina- 
 tion of two simple bodies, hydrogen 
 and oxygen. In chemistry, hydrogen is 
 known by the letter H, oxygen by the 
 letter O, and carbon by the letter C. 
 If water were a combination of one 
 
28 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 part of hydrogen and one part of 
 oxygen, chemists would simply call it 
 HO ; but it so happens that the pro- 
 portion of hydrogen to oxygen is as 
 two to one, so that water is designated 
 by H^ O. If we take away from water 
 — H'-^ O — one of its atoms of hydrogen 
 and replace it by a hydro-carbon 
 radical, that is to say, a compound of 
 hydrogen and carbon, we shall obtain 
 different combinations of hydrogen, 
 carbon and oxygen, corresponding to 
 different types of alcohol. If, for 
 instance, we add a compound composed 
 of one atom of carbon and three of 
 hydrogen to HO, we shall have the 
 formula CH^HO or CH^O, a compound 
 body known as methyl alcohol or wood 
 alcohol. If we were to add to HO two 
 atoms of carbon and five of hydrogen, 
 we should have the formula C^H^HO 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 29 
 
 or C^H^O, which corresponds to ethyl 
 alcohol or wine alcohol. In the same 
 way, the formula of amyl alcohol or 
 fusel oil, is C'H^^HO; that of propyl 
 alcohol C^H^HO ; that of butyl alcohol 
 C^H^HO, etc. 
 
 The member of the large family of 
 alcohols which interests us most and 
 the only one we shall deal with to-day 
 is ethyl alcohol, a compound body 
 consisting of two atoms or molecules of 
 carbon, six molecules of hydrogen and 
 one molecule of oxygen. 
 
 To make ethyl alcohol, therefore, it 
 suffices to put together two molecules 
 of carbon with six molecules of 
 hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. 
 Theoretically, such a feat is possible, 
 but practically it is not only difficult 
 but also absolutely unnecessary, since 
 that same combination is the natural 
 
30 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 result of alcoholic fermentation. 
 Fermentation, as you know, is a phe- 
 nomenon which transforms the sugar 
 contained in the juice of the grape 
 and produces principally carbonic acid 
 gas and ethyl alcohol. 
 
 The juice of the grape ferments 
 naturally and thus becomes wine, which 
 was the first alcoholic liquid to be dis- 
 tilled, and for a long time the only one. 
 Natural wines, however, never contain 
 a large proportion of alcohol, so that 
 much wine must be burnt or distilled 
 to obtain a comparatively small 
 quantity of spirit. On the other hand, 
 climatic conditions render viticulture 
 perforcedly limited, so that the pro- 
 duction of wine has never been greatly 
 in excess of the consumption thereof. 
 Both the short supply and the higher 
 cost of grape-spirit have thus placed 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 31 
 
 Brandy or distilled wine beyond the 
 reach of the masses in all but wine- 
 growing districts. 
 
 Had not the ingenuity of man dis- 
 covered any other mat-erial to distil 
 except the naturally fermented juice of 
 the grape and of a few other fruits, 
 spirits would be as scarce now as in 
 the twelfth century, and much more 
 costly. As a matter of fact, grape 
 spirits are very much less plentiful and 
 much dearer, whilst their consumption 
 is considerably smaller than that of 
 other spirits. 
 
 Grape juice contains natural yeast 
 and sugar, and the former, as we know, 
 transforms the latter into alcohol ; if, 
 therefore, we obtain by some direct or 
 indirect means a liquid containing 
 sugar, and if we add yeast to it, we 
 shall provoke a similar phenomenon; 
 
32 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 fermentation will set in and transform 
 the sugar into alcohol. Barley, maize, 
 rice, molasses, beetroot, potatoes, 
 and practically all vegetal products, 
 contain either some sugar or some 
 other matter, such as starch, which can 
 be transformed into sugar; they can 
 be thus caused to ferment, to yield 
 some alcohol, which may be separated 
 later by distillation. 
 
 Sugar-cane, molasses, beetroot and 
 those tubers, commonly called Jerusalem 
 artichokes, all contain a fairly large 
 proportion of sugar; they have only 
 to be crushed or mashed and diluted ; 
 yeast is then added and they are thus 
 fermented in a direct way. 
 
 Wheat, barley, rye, oats, maize and 
 rice contain no sugar, but starch in 
 varying proportions, and by malting, 
 starch is transformed into glucose ; 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 33 
 
 yeast will cause the glucose to ferment, 
 and alcohol is thus obtained. 
 
 In a similar way, the starch contained 
 in potatoes is transformed into glucose, 
 which, by the addition of yeast, is 
 caused to ferment and to produce 
 alcohol. 
 
 Having obtained by fermentation an 
 alcoholic liquid, it only remains to 
 distil it. 
 
 Different elements are affected 
 differently by heat. You all know, 
 that the heat which will melt butter, 
 will not melt lead, and that the heat 
 which will suffice to melt lead, will 
 not melt copper ; if you had, for 
 instance, a piece of mineral com- 
 posed of lead and copper, you could 
 separate them by heat, because the 
 lead would melt first. 
 
 In the same way, the boiling point 
 
34 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 of water being lOO^ Centigrade, if you 
 were to heat some sea water to 100*^, the 
 water would be vaporised, that is to say, 
 it would become vapour — or steam — 
 but the salt contained in the water 
 would remain intact because salt only 
 vaporises at a temperature of i,ooo°. 
 
 In the same way, again, heat vapor- 
 ises alcohol at a temperature of 78° 
 centigrade; so that if we put in a 
 saucepan some wine or any other 
 alcoholic liquid, and place it on the 
 fire, vapours of alcohol should be 
 obtained as soon as the liquid reaches 
 78° and no water vapours should 
 be emitted, if we are careful not to 
 allow the temperature of the liquid to 
 reach 100^. 
 
 If this were the case, distillation 
 would be very much simpler than it is ; 
 but it is not so, because such an 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 35 
 
 afiinity exists between alcohol and 
 water, that it is very difficult to 
 separate the one from the other at 
 any given temperature. 
 
 Pure alcohol (anhydre) will be 
 vaporised at 78°, but a temperature 
 of 83*1 is required to vaporise an 
 alcoholic liquid containing 50 per cent, 
 of alcohol and 50 per cent, of water; 
 and, if an alcoholic liquid, such as 
 wine, contained only 10 per cent, of 
 alcohol, a temperature of 92*6 would be 
 required to vaporise the said liquid; 
 92*6 is very noar the 100° when all the 
 water vapours will come over. 
 
 The vapours which are emitted by 
 the wine placed in the saucepan will 
 therefore contain both water and alco- 
 hol, although more of the latter and 
 less of the former than originally. 
 
 If we now put a lid on that saucepan, 
 
36 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 the steam or vapour will at once 
 be condensed into a great number 
 of small drops which will adhere to 
 the cold surface of the lid and we can 
 cause them to run into a glass. The 
 alcoholic liquid we have thus obtained, 
 first by vaporisation and then by 
 condensation, still contains a large 
 proportion of water, but being placed 
 over the fire once more, it will 
 again emit vapours which we shall 
 condense again, and which will contain 
 a greater proportion of alcohol than 
 before, but too much water still. We 
 can then do the same thing, again 
 and again, further rectifying our spirit, 
 until we have reduced the proportion 
 of water as much as we wish or can. 
 Distillation, therefore, may be said 
 to necessitate three distinct essential 
 operations : 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 37 
 
 Firstly : VAPORISATION, to produce 
 alcoholic vapours. 
 
 Secondly : CONDENSATION, to collect 
 the said vapours. 
 
 Thirdly : RECTIFICATION, to free 
 the said vapours from any excess of 
 water or other matters they may 
 contain. 
 
 These three principal operations are 
 quite distinct from each other in 
 theory, but not always so in practice. 
 
 We must remember that, although 
 pure alcohol becomes vaporised at 
 a temperature of 78°, the boiling- 
 point of water is 100°, and that 
 the greater therefore the proportion 
 of water in any alcoholic liquid, the 
 greater will have to be the heat to 
 vaporise the alcohol, according to the 
 following scale : — 
 
38 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 I Alcohol. % of Water. 
 
 Boiling point. 
 
 lOO 
 
 
 
 78° Centigrade. 
 
 90 
 
 10 
 
 78°-8 
 
 „ 
 
 80 
 
 20 
 
 790.7 
 
 tt 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 8o°-9 
 
 It 
 
 60 
 
 40 
 
 8i°'9 
 
 It 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 83-1 
 
 „ 
 
 40 
 
 60 
 
 84°- 1 
 
 II 
 
 20 
 
 • •• oO ... 
 
 88°-3 
 
 It 
 
 10 
 
 90 
 
 92°-6 
 
 If 
 
 I 
 
 99 
 
 99°-o6 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 100° 
 
 H 
 
 Bearing this in mind, let us take a 
 glass vessel composed of a chamber to 
 contain the liquid we wish to distil, and 
 fitted at the top with a pipe or tube to 
 lead off the vapour into a receptacle 
 placed at the end of it ; we shall then 
 have a still in its simplest form, but a 
 still all the same. If we fill our still 
 with some alcoholic liquid containing, 
 for instance, 20 per cent, of alcohol, and 
 place it over a fire, as soon as the tern- 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 39 
 
 perature of the liquid reaches 88°'3, 
 vapours of alcx)hol will be produced 
 which will go up the tube, but which 
 will be followed by water vapours. The 
 vapours which reach the tube will 
 contain a greater proportion of alcohol 
 than the liquid they came from ; and if 
 they contain 40 per cent, of alcohol 
 instead of 20 per cent., the alcohol 
 they hold will be vaporised at 84°*l. 
 When they have travelled some way 
 along the glass tube, they are further 
 from the fire, and the temperature of 
 the lower part of the tube will prob- 
 ably be four degrees cooler than that 
 of the mass of the liquid. As a 
 temperature of 84°*l is sufficient 
 to vaporise alcohol, the alcohol 
 contained in the vapours which have 
 come from the mass of the liquid, 
 will still remain vaporised, and will go 
 
40 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 further up the tube ; but the water 
 present in the same vapours will find it 
 too cold to remain vaporised, and a 
 good deal of it will be condensed into 
 water again, and fall back into the 
 mass of the liquid whence it originally 
 came. So that when the vapours reach 
 the top of the tube, they contain a 
 greater proportion of alcohol than 
 when they first entered it. They may 
 then contain 50 per cent, of alcohol, 
 and we know that, in that proportion, 
 the alcohol will be vaporised at a 
 temperature of 83^*1 ; on the other 
 hand, the top of the tube, being 
 further away still from the fire, will 
 probably be one degree cooler than the 
 lowe part, and the same phenomenon 
 will repeat itself; some more of the 
 water contained in the vapours will be 
 condensed at the lower temperature, 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 41 
 
 and will fall back into the liquid it 
 came from, whilst the alcohol will still 
 be vaporised, and will pass on further 
 in the shape of alcoholic vapours into 
 a receptacle where the temperature 
 must always be kept well below 78^ 
 so that, even if vapours of pure alcohol 
 entered, they would be condensed 
 immediately. 
 
 Now, if this pipe or tube through 
 which the alcoholic vapours have to 
 travel were long enough ; if it could be 
 separated inside in a series of compart- 
 ments; if the temperature of each 
 compartment could be regulated and 
 graduated from 100^ the boiling point 
 of water, down to 78^ the boiling 
 point of alcohol, we should be able, 
 theoretically, to isolate from any 
 alcoholic liquid all the alcohol it 
 contains. 
 
42 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 In practice, however, this is not 
 possible, and, in most cases it is not 
 even desirable, since the object of 
 distillation, when applied to potable 
 spirits, is not to separate all or nearly 
 all the alcohol contained in any 
 alcoholic liquid from all the wate , 
 ethers, essential oils, and other matters 
 the said liquid is composed of. 
 
 A light white wine and strong beer, 
 for instance, are very different alcoholic 
 liquids, although both contain some 
 ethyl alcohol. If both wine and beer 
 could be distilled, rectified and re- 
 distilled until all the ethyl alcohol 
 contained in each had been completely 
 isolated, the spirit obtained would be 
 identical in each case ; it would be 
 simply plain spirit or pure spirit, plain 
 or pure because it would be free from 
 all such by-products as are always con- 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 43 
 
 tained in grape juice or malted barley. 
 
 On the other hand, the object of 
 distillation being principally to reduce 
 the proportion of water contained in 
 such liquids, if both wine and beer 
 have been caused to contain each 50 per 
 cent of alcohol, the result will be a 
 grape spirit and a grain spirit as 
 distinct as the wine and beer they have 
 been distilled from. The alcohol, from 
 a chemical standpoint, will be the same 
 in each case but the by-products or 
 impurities will be very different, and 
 it is these by-products which are 
 responsible for the distinctiveness of 
 all spirits other than highly rectified 
 spirits, which should contain none. 
 
 In other words, it may be asserted 
 that the quality and distinctiveness of 
 spirits vary according to the nature 
 and proportion of the by-products they 
 
44 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 contain, and not owing to any differ- 
 ences in the chemical composition ot 
 their alcohol. 
 
 Wine distilled until it contained 99 
 per cent, of ethyl alcohol would be purer 
 as spirit, but worse as Brandy, than 
 wine distilled only to 50 per cent. 
 On the other hand, a liquid fermented 
 from potatoes, if distilled to 50 per 
 cent., would be 49 per cent, worse, as 
 well as less pure, than a spirit obtained 
 from the same liquid distilled to 99 per 
 cent. 
 
 In all alcoholic liquids, the ethers, 
 essential oils, acidity, mineral matters, 
 and other component parts, vary 
 greatly, some being retained with ad- 
 vantage after distillation, whilst others 
 must be eliminated altogether. 
 
 The nature and proportion of the 
 by-products contained in different 
 
THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 45 
 
 Spirits vary considerably, according to 
 two main causes : — 
 
 I? According to the nature of the 
 alcoholic liquids from which 
 different spirits are distilled. 
 2° According to the strength at 
 which spirits are distilled, 
 and according to different 
 methods of distillations. 
 Taking, for example, a mash made 
 from malted barley, if we distil part of 
 it until it contains 50 per cent, of alco- 
 hol, and if we distil another part further 
 until it contains 90 per cent, of alcohol, 
 we may then add to the latter some 
 water and thus reduce it to 50 per cent, 
 of alcohol, or in other words, to proof ; 
 the two spirits will then contain the 
 same percentage of alcohol, but they 
 will differ considerably in every other 
 respect, because the first will possess 
 
46 THE ART OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 a much larger proportion of the dis- 
 tinctive by-products of the malted 
 barley it was distilled from. 
 
 It is, unfortunately, impossible in 
 the very limited space of time at our 
 disposal to do more to-day than 
 indicate the main principles which 
 govern the art of distillation. How 
 Whisky, Brandy, Rum, Gin and Plain 
 Spirits are distilled, rectified, treated 
 and matured, are subjects we must 
 reserve for a future date. 
 
 Palmer, Sutton & Co., Printers, 34 & 36, Crutched Friars, B.C. 
 
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